Maybe I am just ignorant, but I do not see the appeal of gold.
"Gold. How archaic." is what I immediately think. So many other commodities will hold value, even in the worst of times, being either useful or desired, and have long shelf lives.
"Gold. How archaic." is what I immediately think. So many other commodities will hold value, even in the worst of times, being either useful or desired, and have long shelf lives.
People agree it has value because the most powerful players in the global economy agree that it has value. There is also a limited amount of it.
Do people trade gold 'still in the mountain'? I could start a market for gold still underground, effectively saying "you have purchased 1kg of gold, but to redeem, you have to pay $500 of mining costs".
Since there is a near unlimited supply of gold in the entire earth's crust, that could work to make a price ceiling on actual gold, which in turn would severely reduce its use as a reserve currency.
And Warren Buffet agrees gold is not a good choice because it's not a productive asset. A bar of gold in your safe won't produce anything. After 50 years it's still just a bar of gold. Compare that to what the market does over 50 years.
It's better to buy farmland or part of a company or a property that you rent out. Productive assets.
> After 50 years it's still just a bar of gold.
Not rusting or otherwise degrading is a great thing. Gold is not just pretty to look at, it has great electrical properties that make it useful to industry
But: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold#Other_applications
Electronics mostly, it seems.
Yes.
It's a rock trading card that people have been trading for thousands of years.
The industrial uses exist, but it's a vehicle of Economic exchange.
This is why I find Bitcoin useful. It's nuclear chemistry proof.
But not people proof, as it's wild fluctuations will attest to.
It's like the metal of the gods.
And faith in all those things is what gives it value.